About Turan Dursun

Shortly after leaving his home in the Asian part of Istanbul, Dursun was assassinated by two gunmen . Later it was discovered that many items were missing from Dursun's library shelves. A book was found on his bed entitled "the Holy Terror of Hizbullah" which, according to his relatives, did not belong to Dursun and had probably been left as a message by the terrorists.

The police report did not mention any items missing.

As a result of the investigation, 15 suspects were arrested but they were immediately released after their first appearance at court.

Shortly afterwards, two separate cases related to the crime were initiated. In one of these, the chief directors of the terrorist organization -- including Kudbettin Gok , Mehmet Ali Seker, Mehmet Zeki Yildirim, and Ekrem Baytup -- were accused of murdering Turan Dursun . While this trial was in progress, news arrived about the capture of Irfan Cagrici, the leader of the IHO, which led to the trial of him and 12 of his comrades.

Dursun was born in 1934 in the village of Gumustepe in the Sarkisla district of Sivas (Turkey). His father was an imam (Muslim priest) who dreamed of making his son the most prominent religious scholar of the time " unmatched in knowledge even in Basra and Kufe " . For this reason he didn't send his son , Turan , to the official primary school( where he would have received little or no religious education). As a result Turan spent his childhood under the supervision of a number of sheikhs and religious tutors in various dervish lodges. At that time the main goal of young Turan was to fulfill his father's wishes. His ambition and talent were so great that he usually finished a few -year- courses in only a few months. He learned Kurdish in 3-4 months just to be able to understand lectures from the Kurdish instructors who had the best knowledge of Islam of that time. He was still only a child when he had learned the "safv" and "nahv" dialects of Arabic as well as the forms of the Arabic language of not only the 11-12th centuries but also the 7-8th centuries. When he reached the age of 17 he had read the Kazviniye and obtained Icazet (a degree of qualification in Islam).